Page:Yachting wrinkles; a practical and historical handbook of valuable information for the racing and cruising yachtsman (IA yachtingwrinkles00keneiala).pdf/289

 *ers need be at no loss for substantial reasons for tardiness in fitting out.

These spacious craft are expensive to run. They are great gobblers up of greenbacks, their voracity being incapable of appeasement. As a matter of fact, yachtsmen fall an easy prey to land-sharks disguised as ship-chandlers and merchants who cater to the needs of those who take their pleasure afloat.

Monster steam vessels and unwieldy schooners soon reduce the balance at the bank unless their owners bring to bear on the situation the same business shrewdness that dominates their offices in Wall street, where every little bill is audited with lynx-eyed subtleness, and the salary list, from the cashier to the three-dollar-a-week office boy, is scrutinized with economical care every week in the hope of cutting down expenses by reducing the working staff.

My heart goes out to the man who cultivates yacht racing not for ostentatious and vulgar display, but from an innate and hearty love of the sport. If I can give him a few hints on the way of saving a dollar or two of his modest store, I shall only be too delighted.

The carrying of large crews is obligatory in racing yachts but is by no means requisite. In another chapter I have mentioned the small number of men carried on the America and Sappho in their voyages across the ocean. In the Atlantic race of December, 1866, in which Henrietta, Vesta and Fleetwing